Rebuilding an Acacia Ridge business that went up in flames

Rebuilding an Acacia Ridge business that went up in flames

A random spark in the wrong place can cause catastrophic damage to property and threaten nearby workers and residents.

This was the situation at an industrial warehouse at Acacia Ridge, 15 kms from the Brisbane CBD.

The Damage

An adjoining business was carrying out demolition works on their property. A worker was grinding sheet metal when sparks from the grinder quickly ignited polystyrene waffle pods nearby. The flames quickly spread to the nearby 640m2 shed, causing it to immediately go up in flames.

The resulting fire was toxic and extremely volatile, engulfing the entire shed within a few minutes.

The shed slab sustained damage, with extensive cracking due to the extreme heat. An adjacent shed was also affected, with damage to the external wall cladding.

The Process

Advanced Buildings Qld were contracted to clean-up the damaged property and restore the building. This involved:

Demolition and removal of the existing, damaged shed.

Coordinating an engineer to inspect the existing slab and determine the extent of the damage. As a result of this inspection, we had to install a new concrete slab over the top of the existing one.

Attending to compliance upgrades, we needed to install a fire hydrant and fire hose reels. This involved engaging a hydraulics engineer to advise on the necessary equipment and location of this equipment within the building.

Supplying and installing a new COLORBOND® steel shed to match the existing structure.

Supplying and installing a new internal office and disabled toilets.

Installing new electrical wiring, phone and data system.

Completing certification of the entire structure.

The Challenges

Avoiding exposure to high voltage electricity

High voltage power lines ran along the back side of the building. The Advanced Buildings team had to arrange for the disconnection of the electricity current several times during the shed installation during business hours.

Working safely on a high-risk site

Safety was a priority due to the high risk of fire. Due to the presence of highly flammable materials, we had to carry out all repair works without creating any sparks. That meant no grinding, no welding and no cutting onsite. Any ‘hot works‘ had to be done away from the area.

Limited site access

Traffic in the industrial area was busy, with several large delivery trucks (semi-trailers) attending the site daily to service the other operating businesses nearby. This meant our access had to be coordinated around these deliveries.

For this reason, some of the work had to be done after hours.

Status of the project

As of the middle of November, the construction is still not quite complete, but due for completion in around two weeks.

To date, the client is happy with the work, and keen to see the completion of the new building.

Currently we are on budget, with a couple of items to still finalise. The fire hydrant upgrade will be an additional cost that is still in the quoting phase.

Adam Dombroski, from Advanced Buildings Queensland office, was the site supervisor on entire build.

According to Adam:

“To date there have been no problems or issues that we haven’t been able to sort out. The team have rebuilt the property to a high standard. We’ve been able to work well with all the other businesses onsite, maintaining good communication with them all throughout the works.”

For more information about this project, contact the Adam Dombroski, Site Manager – Queensland on 1300 300 049.